Sunday, December 16, 2012

This is our daughter Dylana Kapuler who with Mario DiBenedetto call themselves Peace Seedlings and have their own seed company. A link can be found at the top of the right column.
Peace Seeds is now focusing on PNW endemic species, obscure food plants and new breeding results.
Alan and Linda Kapuler

PeaceSeeds.com

A
Planetary Genome Pool Service

Plant
Breeding for the Public Domain

Pacific
Northwest Species Seeds

OG
since ‘73

Alan and Linda Kapuler

2013

To Order

Send
your list of requests to Peace Seeds, 2385 SE Thompson St., Corvallis OR
97333-1919 USA, with a check or postal money order for the appropriate amount
including $3, shipping and handling. For orders outside of the USA, please
include 30% of cost of order for airmail postage and handling. We can be
emailed at alkapuler@yahoo.com

Dedication

ToLynn Margulis, a Gaian biological genius whose macro view from a micro
perspective changed the way we understand life and the living planet that is
our home.

She was a champion of genomic cooperation in an era when evolution was
dominated by the competitive selection viewpoint. She promoted cooperation as
one of the major forces in evolutionary selection. Her books about the
diversity of life continue to educate us about the complexity, wry uniqueness
and sheer magnificence of our living planet.
Her living planet perspective, Gaia, encourages us to grow
out of our human egocentricity into a unified biology.

Appreciation and Recognition

To
Dylana Kapuler and Mario DiBenedetto, dba Peace Seedlings.

For a 2013 list send a SASE to 2385 SE Thompson St.,
Corvallis OR 97333 USA.

To
Alex Curnew aka GAlexC for his wonderful spirit and essential help.

To
John and Marsha Sundquist for their collaboration at River’s Turn Farm

To
James Lawson for PeaceSeeds.com and Bi Jihuan for http://fplants.net

To
Hal Brown, Tracy and Dan Lamblin.

To
Judy Weiner, Windy River Farm for the Peace Seeds logo.

To
the SSE, GRIN, Alan Bishop, seedfolk locally and worldwide.

To
Sarangamat Gurusiddian Ph.D. for collaboration in the amino acid analyses.

To
George Stevens (Synergy Seeds), Anpetu Oihankesni (Sourcepoint Seeds) and Rich Pecoraro (Abbondanza Seed and Produce),
three of the greatest living seedfolk.

To
Scott and Zizi Vlaun (MoosePondArts) for our decades long collaboration.

To
Dominique Guillet (Kokopelli Seeds) for his courage, dedication and commitment
topublic domain seeds, a healthy world
and a loving planetary society.

To
Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and The Grateful Dead.

Thanks to all of you, the endeavor grows.

Recommendations

Ocean’s
End by Colin Woodard, 2000, Basic Books.

1493 by Charles Mann 2011,
Knopf.

Terms of Business

We are responsible that the seeds we supply and
fertile and correctly labeled. We are glad to reimburse anyone dissatisfied to
the cost of the seeds and no more, or to re-supply given kinds. We are not
responsible for the mis-use of the seeds or the plants that arise from them.
Our seeds exceed state and federal germination requirements. We list the
minimum number of seeds per packet. Frequently we pack more, depending on the
harvest. Seeds from our breeding work and other staple crops are grown organically
in our 3 acre Peace Seeds and Peace Seedlings garden aka Brown’s Garden. A few
kinds come from our home garden. Brian Walker and Locally Grown Seeds provided some
of the pea seeds. John Sundquist provided seeds as indicated in the text. The
remainder are collected in the PNW or in other places that we visit. Tubers, corms, bulbs and yacon crowns are sent
only to USA addresses.

Introduction

After
decades of writing seed lists and catalogs, this is the first time using the
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group 3 System, called APG3. For a good introduction see
P. Spears 2006 A Tour of the Flowering Plants, Missouri Botanical Garden
Press or look on-line under APG3. Peter Stevens discussion of current plant
taxonomy in the APG3/MOBOT website is most excellent and inspiring.

We encourage people to do a Google image search for the
species and cultivars that we offer and to look into Wikipedia on-line for more
information.

THE ANGIOSPERMS=The FLOWERING PLANTS

MONOCOTSAlismatales Alismataceae

Sagittaria latifoliaWapato50
seeds/3.00; 3 small tubers/$10

A widespread aquatic food plant of
north America, used by natives for untold centuries and of major importance in
the pacific northwest where it also feeds ducks, geese, muskrats, nutria and
beavers. Plants are attractive, to 3’, with large arrow-shaped leaves and
spikes of 1” white flowers, male and female on the same flowering spikes,
sometimes sexes on different plants. Seeds are fresh collected from plants we
grow.Japanese high school students have
found that seed germination is promoted by 300 ppm GA-3 (Gibberellic Acid-3)
reducing germination time (from years to months) cf:http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110001826078/en/

The small tubers can be dropped in
a shallow water (6-20 inches deep) pond or tub with several inches of soil on
the bottom. After they grow roots, they will sink to the bottom, root in and
make leaves, flowers andeventually
seeds. Supplies are limited.

One of the
major PNW Amerindian foodplants. The common and widely distributed species with
edible bulbs and attractive purple flowers. This was one of the major
foodplants of this bioregion prior to the Columbian exchange (see the books 1491
and 1493 by Charles Mann for a mind opening unveiling of life in the New
World before and after Columbus). At one time, the Willamette Valley in
springtime was a blue-purple blaze from the coast range to the Cascades as the
camas was widespread and prolific. Camas was tended with care by the native
peoples who harvested it. Now it is marginalized. Burbank, 85 years ago bred
cultivars with large bulbs and a variety of flower colors including pinks,
blues, pale yellows to show that this is a multifunctional taxon with delicious
bulbs and beautiful flowers. Calochortus also has these traits in common.Camassia quamashCamas Hyacinth, minor Maturity 2-5 years 25/4.00One of several species of camas used
by PNW natives as a primary vegetable foodplant. Flowers are blue-purple,
smaller than C. leichtlinii, as are
the bulbs. Used for centuries, baked in pit ovens whence the bulbs which
contain inulins caramelize into a delicious food. In 1998,
Gurusiddiah and Kapuler analyzed the juice of a camas bulb and found 15/20
amino acids used in protein synthesis in the juice. The highest amounts were,
in descending order, arginine, cysteine, threonine, isoleucine, aspartic acid,
tyrosine, serine and histidine. In comparison with other vegetables, the camas
is unusually high in some of the rarer amino acids needed by our bodies for
making proteins. Alliaceae

Allium ampeloprasumBabbington Top Setting Leek20 bulbils/$5.00

Perennializing hardy heirloom with
bulbils made on the top of inflorescences as some garlic and onions.Allium ampeloprasumWinter
Giant Leeks100/3.50

An open
pollinated selection from an F1 hybrid with excellent biological and agronomic
traits: tight wrappered single spherical bulbs, longterm storage, crisp medium
hot flavor, selected under organic conditions. An amino acid
analysis of the juice of one of the early generations of this new cultivar
showed significant amounts of >>
arginine, aspargine, glutamine, serine and leucine.

An unusual
relative of Hippeastrums, Amaryllis, Crinums, this perennial bulb has a 180
degree twist in the inflorescence so that the
tubular orange and greenish flowers face down. Grown in our greenhouse. Plant so that the top 1/4 of the bulb
is above the soil level. Please include $3 for shipping. 5 bulbs available.

Scadoxus puniceusPaintbrush Amaryllid1
flowering sized bulb $12

South African
bulb with spike of orange clustered flowers in late spring before the leaves
emerge. Attractive and interesting. We grow these in the ground in our
greenhouse in mixed sand, clay and gravel with most of the bulbs emerging above
the soil.. Please include $3 for shipping. 3 bulbs available.

Perennial shrub to
2 feet with sharp pointed leaf-like structures and red berries. Is known to
increase circulation and an herbal for varicose veins and hemorrhoids. Dioscoreales Dioscoreaceae Dioscorea
batatasJinengo
Potato4/6.00

Temperate
vine that develops 2-3’ or longer starchy edible roots, sometimes wrist sized
and taking several years. On the vines, small aerial edible bulbils develop
which drop to the ground and produce new plants. We supply these vegetative
seeds. An alternative name is Mountain Yam and this is a true yam, a dioscorea
rather than a sweet potato which is a tuberous rooted morning glory with which
it is frequently confused. One of our customers
instructed us that these aerial seeds grow male plants. Female plants develop
entirely different kind of seeds.

Orchidales

Orchidaceae

Dendrobium
kingianumPink Rock Orchidone 6-8” keiki/$10

During the 1950’s my father and
I exhibited orchids in the International Flower Show in the NY Coliseum. In the
process I made the acquaintance of G. Hermon Slade from Vanuatu, New South
Wales in the south sea islands where he had an extensive orchid collection. He
later sent me a plant of this Australianspecies that is the sole relic of my childhood collection, more than 50
years on. My father kept it alive until the mid 1990’s. It is doing better now
than in previous decades growing in our cool, shady greenhouse where it is kept
dry during the winter to induce flowering.Poales Cyperaceae

Eleocharis dulcisWater Chestnut3
small corms/$9

A favorite and delicious food in
Asia, we grow these in water tubs and fish tanks in our greenhouse in several
inches of fertile sandy mud submerged in 1-2 feet of water.

Poaceae

Zea
maysDouble Red Sweet Corn1 ounce/6.00

Intense purple
seeds from anthocyanin pigments similar to the ones found in blueberries.
Excellent fresh and makes an extraordinary
corn bread both in taste and color. Plants 5-7’, 1-2 ears/stalk. Dark purple
stalks and leaves. This is the best selection since we began working with high
anthocyanin sweet corns more than 15 years ago.

In 1955 three acres of Golden Jubilee Sweet Corn
gave me food and shelter. One of the best corns bred in the USA, we offer an
open pollinated selection from the original hybrid. Plants are 6-8’ tall,
green, cobs with yellow-orange seeds high in zea-xanthin, one of the three
pigments that protect our eyes from bleaching. A great sweet corn.Zea maysPainted Hill Sweet Corn1 ounce/120seeds/5.00

For many decades, Dave Christiansen
grew native Amerindian starch corns at 5000’ in the Rocky Mountains selecting
for survival and fertility. We crossed his Painted Mountain Starch Corn to
Luther Hill Sweet Corn heirloom to develop the cultivar we offer. It is 5-6’
tall, tillered, multieared, adapted to cool, wet soils and been further
selected by Peace Seedlings for dark multicolored seeds.

Zea
maysRainbow Inca Sweet Corn1 ounce/6.00

Our first sweet corn breeding
project in the late 1970’s with white seeded Peruvian chokelo starch corn,
southwest native Amerindian starch corns and several predominantly heirloom
sweet (su) corns. Inadvertently, with the help of underground rodents and persistence,
we got some multicolored starch corn with large flat seed. The year after, we
found a few multicolored crinkle seeds in the large mostly starch filled ears.
Peace Seedlings has grown up some fresh seed that we are pleased to offer. 8’
green plants, 2 ears/plant.

Zingiberales

Marantaceae

Thalia dealbataWater
Canna5 seeds/4.00

Attractive and hardy water plant to 6’ with panicles of small purple
flowers. Seeds are similar to and feel like those of Canna indica.

From South Siberia almost 20
years ago, now grown up into plants with 3-4’ across

leaves and a giant inflorescence of 8-10’ tall whose central
umbel of tiny white flowers is

more than 14” across. Monocarpic with perennial character.

Levisticum officinaleLovage1 crown division/10.00

Hardy European
perennial herb. Strong intense aromatic flavor.

Lomatium species

We have been collecting small
amounts of seeds of the desert parsleys, genus Lomatium, mostly from north
central Oregon to southern Washington.This endemic genus with 60-80 species native to the Pacific Northwest
having a range from northern California to southern British Columbia and
extending eastward from the high desert plains to the Rockies has many species
used by local native people for food, medicine and survival. Areas that are now
occupied by Hanford, WA were once food and species rich making it possible for
a person, usually a woman, to gather 60 pounds of edible roots in a day. Some
species were dried in the sun, pounded into flour and baked into breads. Names
like breadroot or biscuitroot were applied to several species. These are not
easy to identify though the seeds of each species we have seen thus far are
uniquely distinctive. Seeds of Lomatiums have germinated well for us if planted
from late November to March so they receive the cycles of rain, cold, frost,
mist, sun….

Growing up larger plants is more difficult. Some species have very long
primary taproots that makes transplanting difficult. Soils too are an important
factor and good drainage is essential. We use mixtures of basalt scree,
pebbles, sand, compost in an ongoing work dedicated to growing these rare,
beautiful and disappearing species. Lomatium
dissectum Fern Leaf
Desert Parsley 25/5.00

Well respected medicinal plant with powerful and bitter roots that come
from slow growing large rooted perennials. From the Siskiyou’s to the Cascades
and in the Gorge, these umbels have yellow, sometimes pale yellow to purple
flowers. Root juice contains asparagine and proline in significant amounts. Lomatium nudicaulePestle Parsnip 15/5.00Eaten as spring greens and
winter roots, these small herbs are endemic to the PNW and used by generations
of local native peoples for their nutrition and sustenance. The seeds were
carried and distributed by medicine folk and healers with stories that they
were used for bacterial infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis and virus
infections like influenza. Ryan Drum considers these seeds an effective and
worthwhile replacement for Lomatium
dissectum roots. His on-line discussion of this plant also known as the
Indian Consumption Plant is most excellent. Lomatium
suksdorfii Suksdorf’s
Desert Parsley out of stockVery large clumping perennials
with stout inflorescences, rare.

Lomatium utriculatumSpring Gold20/4.00

Hardy
perennial to 1’ with spikes of yellow flowers that bloom for months during
springtime. Young leaves and roots were used for food and medicine by
west coast natives. Found from California to British Columbia.

The coastal
strand of the Pacific Northwest has some nice stands of endemic species in the
carrot family. This is one of them. Growing to 4’, it likes abundant moisture
and part shade.

Pastinaca sativaHollow Crown Parsnip50/3.50

Excellent
European Heirloom; long roots, large crowns, excellent flavor.

Petroselinum crispum Turkish Parsley 100/3.00

Selected
from heirloom land races collected for the USDA and adapted to our yard during
a decade of acclimatization and selection. Distinctive aroma and flat, thin
leaves.

Smyrnium
olusatrumAlexander’s Salad Greens25/3.00
1 ounce/$9

Another tale of adaptation,
selection and weediness: it took a while for this European species to germinate
and adapt to our shady, moist, PNW valley yard. Then for a few years some nice
large green plants flourished in january to march before much else was
thriving. The next year, 1/4 of the yard was occupied by Alexander’s. Turns out
that the compost pile needs fresh green during late winter and early spring.
Alexander’s was more popular before celery was commercialized as a crop.
Alexander’s is a prime ally for compost making, fertility enhancement and tasty
spring greens for soup and salad.

Araliaceae

Aralia
californicaElk
Clover20/4.00

Established in our yard as a
perennial grown from seed, now 7 years later it has provides an abundant seed crop. Plants are 5-6’ tall, sprawling,
attractive with clusters of small white flowers and purple berries that are considered by some to be an
adaptogen. Stratify for several months at 40F under moist conditions for
germination. Likes moist and shady conditions.

Asterales

Asteraceae-largest
family of dicots, 14-16 tribes, the golden daisies.of the sun.

Arctium lappaTakinogawa Burdock, Gobo50/3.00

A staple of the macrobiotic and
vegan diets. Long roots work their way into clay soils bringing up minerals and
breaking thru hardpans. The roots can get bigger than one’s wrist. They
contribute a unique flavor to soups and stir-fries and have
nutritional/biochemical traits in common with milk thistle and globe artichoke.
Free pre-protein amino acids in descending order of abundance in root juice
are: glutamic+asparagine, arginine, proline, glutamine, isoleucine and
phenylalanine.

Calendula officinalisBright
Yellow Double Calendula25/4.00

3-4” flowers in cold weather, these
hardy daisies grow a foot tall, have about 60 petals/flower and we especially
appreciate them during late fall and early spring. A medicinal plant with a
long history and many virtues.

Cynara cardunculusGlobe Artichoke15/4.00

A venerable foodplant for the edible parts of its immature flowerbuds.
Seeds were collected from the best two plants among fifty that survived the
winter. About half the time these plants overwinter and then we get a fine
harvest. Deep freezes below 20 degrees F kill the plants.

Eriophyllum lanatumWooly
Daisy20/4.00Attractive yellow flowers on 1’
plants collected at 4,000 feet in the Siskiyou Mtns of southern Oregon. These
daisies grow on marginal and depauperate soils and flower in summer and fall.

Helianthus annuusSupreme Mix50/3.00 800 seeds/7.50

Our
ongoing annual selection from volunteers and plantings after decades of public
domain sunflower breeding including polyheaded and large single heads, early
and late flowering, single, double and tiger’s eye petal morphs, color variety
including bronze, amber, red, gloriosa, yellow and lemon. Crosses with Helianthusargophyllus, the Silverleaf Sunflower, a rare Texas endemic have
given some late giants, stiff multiflowered spikes and a longer flowering
season.

Helianthus annuus x H. argophyllusChina Cat Sunflower Mix50/5.00

From crosses of
regular sunflowers with the Silverleaf Sunflower arise new combinations on
stiff, long stems with fuzzy leaves, This ongoing development combining these
species, improves horticultural and aesthetic traits. Towers of flowers and
flower-thick spikes are in the genome.

In 1997 we grew a
kinship garden of the daisies. With 14-16 tribes, more than 1200 genera and
25,000 species, there was considerable opportunity to select representatives
(reps) for optimizing our view of daisy diversity. Among the genus Helianthus
with 50 or so species endemic to the mainland USA, the GRIN network provided
seeds for a dozen species and reps of H.
annuus from a dozen countries. Several years later,we noticed that within our volunteer
sunflowers were some new traits: longer flowering season, particularly at the
end of the season, many branches and branches stiffer than usual with
occasional whorled flower clusters. It seems that of the 4-5 species that can
cross with Helianthus annuus, H. argophyllus is one of them and it was
H. argophyllus that contributed the
new traits. For more info about the species and crossing of sunflowers see The
Sunflower Species of the United States by C.E. Rogers, T.T. Thompson and
G.J. Seiler. 1982, pgs 63-66, National Sunflower Association.

In
2011 we repeated the growout of Helianthus
argophyllus and it crossed avidly with our wild sunflowers. The seeds we
offer are from the F2 and F3 generations. Some of the hybrid plants were 14-16
feet tall and kept flowering for months after the H. annuus had finished flowering.

Lactuca sativaPeace Seedlings Lettuce Mix100/3.00

A mix of more than
18 kinds in all categories.

Lactuca sativaBrown’s
Garden Volunteers100/3.00

Many excellent
volunteers from more than a dozen kinds.

Lactuca sativaPurplus Looseleaf Lettuce100/4.00

Intense
purple crisped leaves, a plus for purple.

Silphium
perfoliatumCup Plant
Daisy25/3.50

Perennial to 8’ with large leaves
that cup the central stem, clusters of 2” yellow flrs. Native to centraland
eastern North America

Smallanthus sonchifoliusYaconsee PeaceSeedlingsSeeds.blogspot.com

Valuable Andean foodplant having
edible inulin containing tubers and propagated from eyes similarto
Dahlias. There are 30-40 eyes in a pound of crowns. Each eye can make a
plantWe plant a piece with one to several eyes in pots to make vigorous
starts that are planted out in mid-spring. See YACON:
Renaissance of an Ancient Andean Foodplant in MushroomsBlog@blogspot.com for more
information about the health, horticultural and nutritional properties of this
ancient crop. Free amino acids in tuber juice are >> asparagine,
glutamine, glutamic acid, arginine, isoleucine, serine and valine.

Tagetes erectaLa Ribera Double Marigolds50/4.00

From
the single flower discussed in the following listing, we are selecting a
beautiful polypetalous

Tagetes erectaSummer Snowflake Marigolds50/5.00

In 1997, in a
small restaurant in La Ribera, Baja California, Mexico, there was a 8” dried up
marigold plant with a single dried up flower. It had fertile seeds and was very
heterozygous, giving rise to lines of both single petal and polypetalous types.
In 2009 we finally grew a stable line whose flowers have 8 orange petals
looking like antelope horns. Kusra Kapuler likened them to snowflakes in
summertime. Plants get 4-5’ tall and bloom late into fall.

Tagetes patulaBurgundy Double Mix Marigolds50/5.00

Selecting China
Cat Mix for polypetalous double flowers with intense wine purple burgundy
flowers having gold margins led to this new mix. Plants are 3’ tall and equally
wide.

Tagetes patulaChina
Cat Mix Marigolds50/3.00800 seeds/7.50

A mix of single
and double flowers. 2-4’ shrubs with marvelous colors and patterns. It is our
core mix that gives rise to new varieties.

Tagetes patulaFrances’s Choice Marigolds50/5.00

Towards the end of
Frances Hoffman’s life, I would wander the garden and pick her a bouquet. She
was a lifetime seed saver, horticulturist and plant genius so my eyes were open
to the unusual and unique. By the time I had picked several dozen kinds of
flowers, I walked down a 40’ row of China Cat MG and saw a heretofore unseen
flower, single with 8 petals, dark red-purple with a gold rim around each
petal. I cut the flower and put it in her bouquet and tagged the plant. A few
days later, on the phone, she expressed her appreciation for the flowers. Her
only specific comment was ‘that’s a right beautiful single marigold’. So having
tagged the plant and collected several mature, fertile, seeding flowers. I
planted them the following year and got a 40’ row, all with the same flower as
I sent Frances. Of particular relevance here is that the seeds from the one
plant, now called Frances’s Choice bred true in spite of the layout wherein the
one plant was in a direct seeded row of about 300 plants of a marigold mix that
upon close inspection can be seen to have virtually every plant different from
one another. So we found that most of the T.
patula’s breed true rather quickly. This is not true of Tagetes erecta which outcrosses very
easily. Frances’s Choice is 3-5’ tall and has 8-9” long stems, ideal for
picking for small, distinctive and outstanding bouquets.

Tagetes speciesGarden Companion Mix Marigolds50/3.00800/7.50

We consider
marigolds and sunflowers the most important companion flowers in the vegetable
garden. This mix returns the tall and wide marigolds to our gardens. Plants are
2-8’ tall with a yearly changing mix of colors, patterns and morphs.

Tagetes patulaGolden Star Marigolds50/5.00

2-3’ stocky, well
branched busheswith hundreds of 2”
yellow and orange flowers that change color as the season progresses into burnt
chrome, paisley and stardust.

Tagetes patulaOrange Sunshine Mix Marigolds50/3.50

Selected from
China Cat, this is an ongoing orange flowered mix. A mixture of single and
polypetalous flowers, or double flowers in the horticultural slang terminology.
Flowers are fluffy making soft orange 3-4’ bushes.

Tagetes patulaRed Metamorph Marigolds50/5.00

2-3’ closely
branched shrubs with flowers that change color and pattern during the season
making floriforous and attractive hedges along pathways in the garden. In the
cool weather of spring-summer the flowers are all wine-burgundy purple. As the
days and nights become warmer, the flowers develop golden orange sectors giving
a pinwheel-like appearance. Then as the cooler weather of fall comes on, the
young flowers become all burgundy once again. The Metamorphs or Face Changers
were a race of people created by Robert Silverberg.

Tagetes patulaSparkler
Double Marigolds50/5.00

3-5’ tall plants
with 2” double flowers, a selection from Frances’s Choice. Like its parental
line, it has 8-9” flower stems making it another fine choice for marigold
bouquets. In Mexico and Central America where Tagetes patula is a wildflower, it and Tagetes erecta are important health promoting herbs. Sacred to the
Day of the Dead, these plants and their flowers are brought into houses and
provide sesquiterpene fragrances that inhibit the growth of common infectious
bacteria like staph, strep and pneumonia and their viruses. The bright flowers
maintain well in mild frosts and last well into fall in the Willamette Valley.
They light up our home for months and remind us that fragrance and color from
organically grown flowers help our moods, brighten up our spirits and sustain
our bodies as winter comes on.

Tagetes
patulaTiger’s
Eye Mix Marigolds50/4.00

Robust plants to
3’ with a profuse bloom of 2” flowers with large petaloid centers. This is the
same phenomenon as seen with sunflowers where doubles cross with singles to
give tiger’s eyes.These are beautiful and
interesting to grow in the annual garden.

Tanacetum partheniumFeverfew100/4.00

Hardy
perennial herb to 3’ with clusters of white flowers having yellow centers and
an aromatic fragrance useful in medicinal
teas.

Zinnia
violaceaSunset
Mix25/3.50

A new mix developed by Peace Seedlings with many colors
and morphologies on 3-5’ plants. Large attractive flowers with some new ones
peeking through.

Caryophyllales

Amaranthaceae includes ChenopodiaceaeAmaranthus
andeanaElephant Head Heirloom50/4.00 A Peruvian woman who walked into our
greenhouse one day remarked ‘kiwicha’ upon seeing the mature cut plants that
reminded her of an heirloom grain that she grew up with. Our seed came from
Frances Hoffman whose plants in Nampa, ID grew 5’ tall and 6’ across with tall
columnar drooping flower spikes that reminded her of elephants in her garden.
Her seed came from Germany in the 1880’s. Curiously, Peru and Germany had
political connections during that era. In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, plants
are considerably smaller, 3-4’ and seed production is enhanced by letting
plants fully age. Beautiful, striking plants.

Amaranthus
cruentusHartman’s Giant100/4.00Once a year, in Jacksonville Oregon,
in the 1970’s, Mr Hartman would fill a glass vase with about two pounds of
tiny, shiny black seeds and give $100 to the person whose guess of the number
of seeds was closest. I sent some seed to a friend who had an electrobalance to
determine that a single seed weighed 0.6mg but it did no good, I never won but
ended up with seeds of a vigorous cultivar that gets to 10’ with large, dark
purple paniculate inflorescence with excellent production of seeds.

Some
20 years ago, Carol Deppe discussed with AMK her interest in perennial salad
plants. In the interrum, Stevil on Alan Bishops gardening website related his
enthusiasm and admiration for this species which grows leafy vines early in
springtime and into summer. The leaves are a good quality edible both raw and
cooked. This is a rather unknown and valuable hardy perennial foodplant. Good
King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus)
is a poor cousin to this species.

Polygonaceae

Polygonum
latifolia v. crassusNye Beach
Polygonum40/4.00

While
walking the intertidal strand in Newport, there are scattered relic populations
of endemic
species. Every once in a while there is a
3-5’ diameter mat plant that tenaciously holds to the sand and the adjoining
cliff faces. From the dense dried flower clusters it is a relative of the
bistort, Polygonum bistorta. Thanks
to Dan Segal (Ithaca, NY) for helping with the taxonomic identification of this
species.

Rumex acetosellaSheep Sorrel50/3.50
A
hardy perennial saladplant with tasty acerbic leaves. It is part of the Hoxsey
Tonic herbal formuation used by cancer patients to improve their condition.

Cornales

Cornaceae

Cornus kousaKousa Dogwood5/3.50

Hardy shrub
to small tree with 1” spherical fruits with hard seeds and palatable sweet
flesh. Another dogwood, Cornus mas,
the Cornelian Cherry Dogwood seems to be somewhat confused with the Kousa Dogwood. The latter has a fruit
juice appropriate for a sorbet. The former has a single large seed in a small,
rather juiceless fruit.

Dipsacales

Valerianace

Valeriana officinalisValerian50/4.00

From
the roots of this hardy biennial/perennial comes a sedative and stress reducing
extract. Has a characteristic and unique
fragrance in both flowers and roots.

Ericales

Ericaceae

Arctostaphylos ura-ursiKinnickinnick, Bearberry10/4.00

Hardy
mat-forming perennial along the sandy coastal strand of the PNW. Uncommon and

disappearing. Attractive leaves
and red berries. Appears to have male and female plants.

Hardy perennial
tea and medicinal mint that thrives in part shade, to 3’.

Ocimum sanctumTulsi Basil50/4.00

Annual in the temperate zone with soft, velvety
leaves whose fragrance and medicinal qualities have been revered in India for
millennia. A venerable teaherb.

Lavandula angutifoliusMunstead Lavender100/3.50

Hardy perennial from 1-2 feet tall with the
characteristic fragrance used in soaps, candles and herbal teas. The dried
flower tops are used to protect clothing from moths.

Perilla frutescensYamazaki
Shiso100/3.00

In their northern California garden, Kazuko and
Jensai Yamasaki grew an aromatic, crisped purple leaved herb whose leaves they
used to flavor and color the Prunus mume
(Japanese flowering apricot) fruits that they salted and fermented into
umeboshi plums. The salted plums have many beneficial health promoting
properties and are an essential part of macrobiotic cuisine. This traditional
Japanese shiso grows to 3’.

Scutellaria barbataChinese Skullcap50/4.00

Hardy plants to 1’ with small pale blue flowers. Has
been used in Chinese traditional medicine for stress, anxiety, headaches and
depression. Extracts have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties (breast
and pancreatic cancers) in that it induces apoptosis (programmed cell
death).We thank Aline of Green Journey
Seeds (Eugene, OR) for providing us seeds of this medicinal herb.

Ranunculales

Papaveraceae

Papaver rupifragumAtlas Poppy100/4.00

From hardy basal
rosettes of bluish-green leaves come 10-20” flower spikes with pale orange flowers. This perennial has become a
well-appreciated garden plant for it flowers when few others do.

Solanales

Solanaceae(good sites
for this family are SolanaceaeSource.org and solgenomics.net)

There is new interest in Capsicum
with the discovery of more than a dozen new species in southeastern Brazil, all
with 2n=26 chromosomes while the commonly known species have 2n=24. Further, as
we grow more species and their cultivars, it seems that as for example in the
following list of Capsicum baccatum distinguished
by cultivar as well as variety, the different varieties could well be species.
In part it will depend on interspecies fertility which can be further
developed. Some C. baccatums are more cold tolerant than many of our cultivated
peppers which belong to Capisicum annuum,
Capsicum chinense and Capsicum
frutescens.

Capsicum annuumAci Sivri Cayenne30/4.00

A Turkish heirloom adapted to cooler nights and clay
soils that grows to 3’ and routinely produces 30-50 fruits per plant, 6-8”
long, of mixed hotness. We eat fresh at most meals from summer through fall.

Capsicum
baccatum v. baccatumCriolla Sella Pepper50/3.00

Small 1’
bushes, highly branched with remarkable production of 2-3” fruits

that mature orange; hot, good for soups.

Capsicum baccatum var
pendulumMalagueta
Pepper40/3.00

1-2’ bushes with pendant 3” fruits,
hot, matures red.

Capsicum baccatum var
pendulumOmnicolor
Pepper20/4.00

Small sprawling plants with 2-3”
elongate fruits that are cream colored, then blush with purple, then turn
orange and finally mature red. Succulent fruits are hot, good fresh and lovely
to grow.

Capsicum baccatum var.
umbilicatumMonk’s Hat Pepper50/5.00

Small
1-2’ bushes with unusual bell shaped, trilobed fruits. These are hot and dry to
a bright red color, suggesting high levels of the tomato anti-oxidant lycopene.

Capsicum
pubescensRed Apple Chili25/4.00

This
Chile Manzano is sweet except for the central membranes that hold the seeds
which is quite hot. These are sprawling bushes with purple flowers
and 2.5x1.5” fruits with thick flesh. The largest fruits are 15-20 grams. By planting 1 year old
plants in the floor of our greenhouse, in part shade, next to a trellis that
holds a Giant Groundcherry, the plants are now 8-10 feet tall and ramble like
the groundcherry. Single plants yield hundreds of fruits beginning in June and
have perennialized.Seeds are black and
plants have light green velvety leaves. Ecologically distinct from the peppers
we ordinarily grow in our gardens.

Capsicum
pubescensGold Chile
Manzano25/4.00

Another
Apple Chile but with smaller orange-yellow fruits 1”x1” that are not as hot as
the red ones. The flesh is sweet, seeds are black, a
characteristic of the species.

Physalis peruvianaGiant Groundcherry35/4.00

Rambling 3-5’ understorey plants
treated as 7 month annuals in the temperate zone. 1” spherical berries are
orange when ripe with a aromatic, fragrant and delicious flavor. Gabriel
Howearth picked up some fruits in Guatemala in the late ‘60’s, passed them on
to us and we have been maintaining it ever since. Start seeds in Jan-Mar for
good outdoor crops. One plant in our main greenhouse grows over and around an 8
foot trellis. It has been thriving for more than 15 years and has a large
caudex. There are small amounts of free aminos in the fruit juice
>>alanine, glutamic acid, proline, aspartic acid and serine.

Renamed
from Solanum=Lycoperscon hirsutum,
this fuzzy-leaved, bright yellow flowered, indeterminate vine species is likely
one of the original species to give rise to the centiflors. But then again
there are two varieties to this species and both have hypertresses to different
degrees.

Solanum lycopersicum (esculentum)Tomato

In the recent revision of the taxonomy of the genus
Solanum (see solgenomics.net and SolanumSource.org), the tomato clade of about
17 species has once again been re-incorporated into the huge genus Solanum (ca
1600 species). In addition, the derived, cultivar level tomatoes with which we
are all familiar are included in a new species called Solanum lycopersicum replacing the familiar species S. esculentum.
This group of plants is an interesting place for gardeners to learn about
species and how they were/are the foundation of modern cultivated varieties.
The modern edible tomato has seeds 2-10x larger than those of the species.
Plant architecture is different among the species and flavor of the small wild
fruits has distinction lost in many modern cultivars. The solids in the juices
of tomato fruits are mostly free amino acids central to the function of our
cells and bodies. The juice has 14-15 of the free amino acids used to build
proteins. The ones in highest amounts are glutamic acid, glutamine, aspartic
acid, asparagine, gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA), serine and alanine. We still do not know how the current tomato cultivars
arose from the wild species.

Solanum lycopersicumEarly
Willamette Bush Tomato50/3.50

Determinate bushes with 3 flowerings
and fruit sets. Fruits in clusters of 4-10 red fruits 0.5-2 ounces each,
similar in earliness to Stupice.

Solanum
lycopersicumGeranium Kiss
Bush Tomato25/4.00

Stocky 2’ plants with hypertresses of
10-25 red fruits of 1 ounce size, excellent flavor, makes 2-4 sets of flowers
and fruits. Plants last well into the fall and fruits maintain well on the
dying bushes. Dylana
considers it ‘a one stake wonder’.

Solanum lycopersicumJoe Pesch Tomato15/4.00

A pink tomato with a long acuminate
tip, quite unusual and unique in the tomato fruits we have
seen during the past decades, of excellent flavor and a gift from Peter Zukis
of Talent Oregon. Mr. Zukis,
an accomplished gardener, got the seeds from an east coast buddy whose
girlfriend’s grandfather was a market and produce gardener in New Haven
Connecticut during the 1920’s. Joe Pesch brought it from Italy some time previous.

Solanum
lycopersicumPeacevine
Cherry Vine Tomato50/3.50

Selected from a well known hybrid
since the early ‘70’s, this vigorous indeterminate vine with two ranked flower
spikes of a dozen flowers makes many very tasty 3/4” red fruits. In a
university study of 30+ varieties of cherry tomatoes for Vitamin C content,
this was #1. The fruit juice also contains 17 of the 20 amino acids used to
make proteins with significant amounts of the neuromodulator GABA (gamma-amino
butyric acid).

Solanum
lycopersicum Red Centiflor
Hypertress Cherry Tomato50/5.00

From our cross of L. humboldtii, the Grape Tress Tomato with L. hirsutum arose this unanticipated cultivar with clusters of
dozens to hundreds of flowers held above the foliage where the silky hairs of
the flower buds resemble insects followed by clusters of large numbers of 1”
red sweet fruits that resist cracking and rot.

Solanum lycopersicumRed Clusterpear Hypertress Cherry Tomato50/4.00

Red pear-shaped fruits on flowers
carried above the foliage. These plants make hundreds of flowers and carry abundant
fruits on vigorous plants.

Solanum lycopersicumOrange Centiflor Hypertress
Cherry Tomato 25/5.00

One of the unusual characteristics of
the Centiflor tomatoes is that, unlike most garden tomatoes, they outcross
occasionally. This creates problems in seed saving but opportunity for crosses
that the bees can do. This
new variety arose from a cross of Sungold with Red Centiflor. These are
vigorous hypertress vines
with remarkably delicious fruits.

Solanum lycopersicumYellow
Centiflor Hypertress Cherry Tomato 50/5.00

Derived from the same cross detailed
in the previous listing, this line makes somewhat larger fruit, with a
distinctive point on the end of the round bright fruits. While both parent
species leading to this cultivar have 5-20 flowers in a spike, these centiflors
(meaning 100 flowers) have hypertresses of flowers leading to a unique and
distinguishing aspect.

Solanum lycopersicumWalhachin Tomato50/5.00

Named for a Canadian town in British
Columbia town where UK refugees from WW1 developed this variety. Plants are
stocky, to 3’ with red, half pound rather hard fruits. Original seed for this heirloom from Chuck
Hayes of Kamloops, BC.

Solanum
lycopersicum v. piriformePear
Shaped Tomato50/3.50

Shrubby plants to 2’ with many tasty,
red, pear shaped fruits. One of the first cultivars derived from wild species.

Solanum peruvianumWild Peruvian Species Tomato50/5.00

Strong
indeterminate vine with bright yellow flowers in clusters. This is a hypertress
species. In one hypertress of 84 flowers, all set fruits. Considered to be
difficult to cross to the common tomatoes, Successes, if any, come from using its
pollen to make crosses. Fruits are green with purple shading. Fruits are edible though not choice.

Solanum pimpinellifolium hybridMatt’s Wild Cherry25/4.00

Small red fruits in bichalazal racemes
reminiscent of Sweet 100 or Peacevine Cherry. But the fruits are much smaller. The plants
ramble extensively. The foliage is characteristic of the Currant
Tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium.

SUPERROSIDS

Brassicales

Brassicaceae

Barbarea vernaEarly Winter Cress100/4.00

Hardy
biennial with nice aspect and tasty leaves for salad in cold weather.

Brassica campestris ssp. rapifera
6 Root Grex Turnips 100/3.00

An interbreeding
mix of six cultivars chosen for edible leaves and quality roots that is
adapting to our local gardens, an ongoing eco-adaptive development.

Brassica napusFrizee Kale100/5.00

From a single
plant among many Russian Red Kale was the progenitor of this new line. Leaves
are ruffled, complexly shaggy, soft and of excellent edibility.

Brassica napusRussian Red Kale100/3.00

A dependable
heirloom for winter greens; to 4’, vigorous plants with leaves for salad and
steamed greens in fall, winter, spring and summer. The top 5 free amino acids
for protein synthesis in the leaf juice are in decreasing amounts: aspartic
acid, glutamic acid, serine, alanine and threonine.

Brassica
oleraceaOregreen
Curled Kale100/4.00

Plants are 3-4’
tall with deeply curled green leaves on stocky stems. Selected from a

cross of Scotch Curled Kale and
Pentland Brig Kale.

Brassica oleraceaWalking Stick Giant Kale50/4.00

Growing to 12’, a
European heirloom with thick stems that twist and turn as the plant
grows
seeking support and when dried making
distinctive canes.

Brassica oleracea v. italicaNutribud Broccoli100/5.00

Open pollinated,
large primary heads and good side-growth after primary harvest, to2’. Vigorous and nutritious with significant
amounts of glutamine and other free protein synthesis and energy amino acids in
the stems and buds. Top florets have the most free amino acids compared with
the stalk and stem that holds them. >> alanine, glutamine,
glutamic acid, proline, GABA, serine and valine.

Tropaeolumtuberosum v. piliferaMashuasee PeaceSeedlingsSeeds.blogspot.com A
very vigorous and productive new foodplant for the PNW. This is a tuberous
rooted nasturtium from Colombia, SA. Since it comes from north of the equator,
there is no day length problem in the production of tubers as we have found
with Bolivian mashua cultivars. Tubers are white with an anise fragrance when
cooked, 5-8” long and produced in abundance, exceeding that of potatoes. Makes
a tight mat over the ground and small attractive orange flowers. Their fall
flowering attracts hummingbirds as the nectaries of the flowers have a very
sweet juice. The decumbent vines not only ramble on the ground but climb
trellis to 8-10’ or more. Traditionally grown in polycultures of potatoes, oca,
ulluco in Andean South America because the tubers contain aromatic mustard oils
that discourage rodents.

Cucurbitales

Cucurbitaceae

Cucurbita pepoCostata Romanesca Vine Zucchini20/4.00

Vigorous vines and
excellent ribbed fruits with a star-like pattern in cross-section. This worthy
Italian Heirloom grows delicious zucchinis for most of the summer into fall.

Cyclanthera
brachystegiaAchocha15/4.00

One of the Andean
vegetables considered a lost crop but for many of us this is a new

Another rare food
plant from the Andes with many virtues. Vines grow prodigiously, especially in
the late summer and fall producing smooth skinned, hollow fruits that are 6-9”
long and are stuffed and cooked like capsicum peppers with which they have
taste similarities.The smaller,
immature fruits are crunchy, tasty and carried on interesting flower spikes
with one basal female flower that bears the fruits and myriad male flowers
higher up on the inflorescence.Fruits
have unusual nutritional properties that include reducing cholesterol,countering diabetes, reducing inflammation
(comparable to ibuprofin), stimulating weight loss and reducing cellulite.One of the few cucurbits whose leaves are
eaten raw as a salad plant.

Fabales

Fabaceae

Sustainer
of the world’s soil fertility as homes for rhizobial microbes and as green
manure and cover crops. The legumes and
roses have different species of bacteria that fix nitrogen in their roots yet
the flowers are very different. Thus Linneaus supported a misconception about
plant relationships that took more than 200 years to correct.

Amphicarpaea bracteataHog Peanut10/5.00

A hardy woodland
plant from the eastern USA that rambles and climbs in shady, moist conditions
and makes both edible peanut like fruits underground and fertile top
seeds.A rather unknown minor foodplant
and enhancer of soil fertility.

Cajanus cajanPigeon Pea20/4.00

Perennial nitrogen-fixer
living 3-10 years, growing 6-10’ bushy plants that are a sustainable foodplant
of tropical ecosystems. Growing and overwintering in our greenhouse, they began
making flowers, pods and seeds the second year. Now, some years later we prune
them down to 3-4’ and they regrow in the following season.. A primary foodplant
in zone 10 and warmer places, used for dahl and tempeh.

Glycine maxSoybeansThe Chinese call the soybean ‘the
great bean’. In The Book of Tofu, Bill Shurtlieff promotes the soybean
as the major protein food source for humanity. It is impressive that these
seeds, originating in the colder northern regions of China, selected and
adapted for thousands of years give rise to tofu, tempeh, tamari, miso,
amasake, and edamame.

3’ plants with silky white hairs on
leaves and pods conferring insect resistance to some pests. Scott Vlaun in
Maine found that Japanese beetles ate the edamame and tofu cultivars but left
the Velvet alone. Said by Lobitz “found as a mutation of the Blackhawk variety
in 1956”. Flowers are white so can be used as a genetic testing strain for
outcrossing among soybean cultivars in the same field. Small yellow-white
seeds.

Annual
plants to 3-5’ with beautiful purple and yellow flowers. Seeds were a
traditional companion plant in Andean mid-elevation gardens that included
potatoes, oca, mashua, squash, achocha and yacon.

Lupinus polyphyllusBig-leaved
Lupin15/4.00

A west
coast native that was one of the parents in the Russell Lupin hybrids found in
many gardens. Beautiful large wheel shaped leaves with up to 16 leaflets.
Spikes are up to 5’ and flowers are pink to tan. Collected in the Willamette
Valley where only relic populations remain.

Melilotus albusWhite Sweet Clover30/4.00

We first
identified this annual/biennial species growing on the banks of the Applegate
River in southern Oregon. This year it volunteered in our backyard garden and
we are glad to offer this plant that grows to 6’ with a fine vanilla-like
fragrance.

Phaseolus
coccineusJack’s Runner Pole Bean10/4.00

An
Austrian heirloom from Donna Truss of Eugene, Oregon that can run up 20’ in a
season with large white lima-bean-like seeds, 2-3 seeds/pod and white flowers.
Named for the legend of climbing a beanstalk and ending up in another world.
Gardening can do that for us, sometimes.

Phaseolus coccineusScarlet Emperor Runner Pole Bean 20/4.00

A
superior food plant heirloom cultivar. Vigorous vines begin flowering when a
foot tall, providing delicious steamed green beans from early on in the season.
Flowers are red, pods 6-8” long with 5-6 seeds/pod of pink overlaid by purple.
An heirloom introduced into the USA in the 1800’s.For the past several
years, the Scarlet Emperors growing at John and Marsha Sundquists organic farm
have survived frozen climes and 12F, well below freezing weather until rodents
are their tuberous roots. We got our original seeds from them in the mid 1990’s..

Phaseolus vulgarisAlice Sunshine Snap Bush Beans25/3.50

20” large vigorous
plants with flat green 7-8” pods with fine flavor and productivity. Original
public domain breeding Robert Lobitz.

Phaseolus vulgarisBiko Snap Pole Beans25/4.00

Productive snap
bean cultivar with 6” pods and distinctive blue-grey seeds. Named in honor of
Stephen Biko who was murdered in 1977 for opposing racial discrimination in
South Africa.

During our first
decade of seed growing and saving, we grew many different cultivars of bush
beans without much savvy as to why they were heirlooms. Then one unusually cold
and frozen winter we had to eat some of our bean seeds. At about the third pot
of bean and vegetable soup we tried the Hutterite bean. Rather than staying as
beans in the soup, they quickly turned into a thick, creamy chowder. It gave us
some insight as to why certain seeds and their plants have been cherished and
passed on from generation to generation. Sometimes we can rediscover the
essential aspects of value to humanity in what continues to be worthy, even in
high tech, high stress, high demand times.

Phaseolus vulgarisNew Mexico Cave Snap Pole Beans25/4.00

Distinctly
patterned seeds on tall, medium–late vines with excellent 6” snap pods combine
with its history to make this worth growing. A few years after we became
members of the SSE (the Seed Saver’s Exchange), we received a package in the
mail from a Mr. Pritchard with a note saying that the enclosed seeds would be
of interest to us. He said they were the third generation from seeds found
buried in a cave in a clay pot, sealed with pine pitch and C-14 dated to 1500
ago. Interestingly, some 15 years later, one of my customers related that her
daughter in a UCLA anthropology course digging for pygmy elephants in New Mexico
found a clay pot with the beans and had them carbon dated. No one has related
about their initial germination and growth, both of which are considered
unlikely in modern scientific terms. We have grown them for decades and the
seeds are unlike any other. Several people have selected lines of this bean
whose markings are characteristic and distinguishable from one another.

The
snap pods of peas and beans are some of the richest sources for free amino
acids in our diets. The analysis of the juice from a fresh snap bean of this
traditional and other heirloom cultivars shows large amounts of the following
free pre-protein amino acids >> glutamine, aspargine, alanine, arginine,
glutamic acid, valine, threonine, methionine, leucine, cysteine and lysine.

Phaseolus vulgarisRed Swan Snap Bush Beans25/5.00

One
of Robert Lobitz’s original public domain cultivars. 16-20” plants have 5” red
snap pods of good flavor and distinctive appearance. This cultivar produces
edible pods early and in abundance,

Unique
and tasty 3” snap pods on 5-6’ vines with while flowers and remarkably sweet
leaves that surround the stems of the vines. The first yellow podded snap
cultivar. Has been longstanding and productive in tropical ecologies. Named to
commemorate the struggle to preserve our old growth forests.

Pisum
sativumSpring Blush Snap
Vine Pea25/4.00

Vigorous vines to
8-10’ with bicolor purple flowers and green snap pods, most with a pink blush. This is a hypertendril cultivar.

Pisum sativumSugar Magnolia Purple Snap Vine Pea20/5.00

Vigorous vines
with purple flowers and purple 3-4” snap pods of fine flavor. We have two seed batches for this purple snap vine cultivar. We will pack
the hypertendril cultivar first and then when it runs out, we will use a seed
stock that has a mixture of tendril types: regular, hypertendril and vetch (no
tendrils) and parsley. Unexpectedly, the cross of a Parsley Bush Pea with a
Purple Podded Snap Vine Pea generated the hypertendril trait. Hypertendrils
are very distinctive, they hold a population of vine peas together, a useful
self-supporting characteristic.

Pisum sativumSugaree Snap Vine Pea25/4.00

An
excellent tall growing vine with 4” green snap pods, 2 flowers/ node, white
flowers. A public domain cultivar in a
heavily PVPed group of plants.

Thermopsis montanaGolden Banner15/4.00

A
hardy western species with trifoliate leaves and bright yellow flowers on 3-4’
spikes.We have observed only scattered
patches of this attractive species in west-central Oregon.

Vicia fabaIant’s Yellow Fava15/5.00

One
day some years ago, Ianto Evans returned from Guatemala with a bag of fava
beans part of which he shared with us. While collecing the tan seeds from one
of the plants, one of the pods had several bright yellow seeds. The next season
they were planted and bred true. Some years later, there was an article about
Israeli researchers who found elevated levels of dopamine in the seeds and
suggested that they would be useful food for folks suffering from Alzheimer’s
disease.

Vicia
fabaLongpod
Major Fava Beans15/4.00

5-6 large seeds
per pod on 3’ plants; plants can make nodules on their roots the size of a
dime. Here they overwinter well when small and before flowering. Then they make
food early in the season like peas. The plants flower a month earlier than
Iant’s Yellow.

Vicia fabaRed Cheek Fava Beans10/5.00

Years
ago in our early days of seed growing and collecting, we received some large
tan fava beans from Peru with a distinctive red-purple blotch on the flat
surfaces of the seeds. Recently Joe Simcox provided us withfresh seeds having this distinguishing
characteristic and we have grown a fresh crop that we now offer.

Vigna unguiculataYard Long Beans=Yalobe20/4.00

Tropical vines
that make long pods16-24” or more depending on cultivar. They are a staple in
several asian cuisines, cooked with oil, garlic and mushrooms.

Fagales

Juglandaceae

Pterocarya fraxinifoliaCaucasian Wingnut10/4.00

An elegant
hardy monoecious tree from the Caucasian mountains and related ecosystems. The
long drooping inflorescences are quite beautiful. Trees appreciate a lot of
water and good soil.

Geraniales

Geraniaceae

Geranium pratenseBlue Meadow Cranesbill20/4.00

An
attractive, hardy and perennial herb that is native to Europe. Seeds came to us
from Frances Hoffman twenty years ago and plants have inhabited our home garden
since then.

Oxalidales

Oxalidaceae

Oxalis
tuberosaOca see PeaceSeedlingSeeds.blogspot.com

A staple foodplant in the Andes
of South America. Brilliantly colored tubers come out of the mud in November
and December as jewels of the earth.. Plants are 1’ tall with shamrock leaves
and tasty acerbic stems and leaves.

Rosales

Rhamnaceae

Frangula purshianaCascara Sagrada5/3.00

Small tree whose
fruits and bark have been used medicinally, especially for constipation.

Prunus domestica x insititiaLa Petite d’Agen Plum5 stones/4.00

We
bought a plum tree from a local nursery, supposedly a Brooks, one of the
largest and well knownvarieties for making prunes.
After a few years we got some plums. They were teardrop shaped, exceedingly delicious and quite small. We
dried a few and they made superb dried plums. So we traced them down to a remarkable history. In the 12th
century, returning from the Crusades and the ancient city of Damascus (modern day Syria), monks
collected seeds of the Damask (or Damson) plum which originated in the Caucasus
Mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas. The monks planted the seeds in a
monastery in the southwest of France about 35 miles from the town of Agen.
These trees crossed to a wild, local plum and gave rise to a legendary heirloom
that we inadvertently acquired. The 80,000 acres of these plums in three
counties in California provide the major part of the world supply of commercial
dried plums.

Saxifragales

Crassulaceae

Sedum sempervivoidesCreeping Stonecrop1 plant/$10

Plants from seeds from
Sacred Succulents. Beautiful lotus-like morphology, originally from the Caucasus Mountains. Plants in 4”
pots will be sent bare rooted. Postage is $2. 10 plants available.

Six papers with HPLC Analyses of
many leaf, root, fruit and flower juices, the Hoxsey tonic, garbanzo bean miso,
broccoli-an inch at a time from stem to buds, onion-one bulb leaf at a time
from the outside in.

This work
was done to explore amino acid nutrition. It provides meaningful and specific
data about the essential small molecule precursors of proteins. Done over a
period of 10 years, the head of the Bioanalytical Laboratory of Washington
State University at Pullman WA did the high pressure liquid chromatographic
(HPLC) analyses of juices provided by us. The results show that pods making
high protein seeds are the best source of free amino acids for protein
synthesis. Thus peas, as snaps and snows, beans as snaps, okra as immature pods
are the most productive free amino acid sources for the cuisine of the
gardener.

We eat
proteins to break them down to amino acids with which we build our own
proteins. Nuts, seeds of many kinds, proteins in leaves and other living
creatures continue to be important protein sources. Looking to make a balanced
amino acid food system encourages non-violence (ahimsa) at the core of our
humanimal food system. Similarly, using amino acids as criteria for selection
of cultivars moves us towards a broad range of physiologically important
criteria for improving our health, longevity and ability to withstand the
stresses of our current society.

Andean Roots Take Hold in Corvallis

In the 1970's, Peace Seeds began purchasing F1 hybrid seeds of tomatoes, growing them out, saving the seeds and repeating the process for more than a decade. In this way Peacevine Cherry Tomato arose from the F1 Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato. This technique is now called 'dehybridizing'.

One must reckon that most diploids are hybrids. Tomatoes are generally diploids. People are diploids. Hence all people are hybrids.

And what is called 'dehybridizing' is genetic, generational selection. If one wants all the plants and their fruits to be the same, ie. homozygous, then it may take many years to achieve.

If you go into a place where wild, native species still exist you can still find bean species. For thousands of years people have been doing this, putting the seeds in their pockets, bringing them back to their communities and planting them for years to come. When we go to native peoples and obtain some of their bean seeds we call them landraces. They come from species and have been domesticated by growouts, selection, human values and attitudes.

Landraces are cultivated wild species.

When we take cultivated varieties of interbreeding plants like kales, peppers, corns which have been grown and selected for a long time into cultivated lines and remix them by growing, flowering and seeding them together, they intercross. This primary genetic mix has a diverse population of hybrid intercrosses depending on the number and fertility of the initial cultivars.

If one saves the seeds from the mixed intercrosses, plants them again and saves the seeds again, one can continue the process for many cycles. The first generation of the crosses is the G1, Generation 1. Then the next cycle and its generation of crosses is G2. With each generation it gets more complex. G1 plants crossing to G4 plants crossing to G3 plants crossing to G2 plants, for example. After many years usually one can open up the genome pool and increase genetic diversity. The original parents and all the generations of their progeny, taken together, is also a grex.

In many ways humanity is also a grex.

In terms of vegetables and popular flowers, grexes are intentional. After having grown and selected vegetables and flowers for several hundred years into discrete, recognizable, homozygous lines ie cultivars or cultivated varieties, humanity has begun to remix them.

It seems that landraces precede most grexes. Good grexes require wide crosses and an abundant mixture of parents reflecting genetic diversity in visible and invisible traits. Landraces came from times when there were fewer genetic mixes since the species that gave rise to them were widely distributed.

Right now one can obtain much more genetic diversity than was possible before Columbus, before computers, before being able to easily travel the world and collect seeds and plants. Now we have huge populations of people growing gardens. At the same time we have industrial and corporate monoculture agriculture. Now genetics and molecular biology have changed our understanding of informational macromolecules, inheritance and genomes.

Grexes are a way we solve the issue of how to adapt our foodplants to our local ecosystems and to the exigencies of radical climate change.

Landraces have some aspects in common with grexes. They are not the same thing. They have very different meanings and relationships.

While the term ‘grex’ comes from the latin for ‘flock’ as Margaret Roach so wisely points out and that it was first applied to the lady slipper orchid Paphiopedilum delenatii and its interspecies crosses, a ‘flock’ of birds encompasses the complexity of generation after generation after generation of breeding, all flying in the sky at the same time.

Some years ago, Peace Seeds applied the orchid term for ‘grex’ in a broader way (3 Root Grex Beets, 6 Root Grex Turnips) for what is possible in making multiparent, multihybrid crosses and the complex genomic diversity that arises from them. We need more terms for the mating systems that are seasonal like annual vegetables and for perennials that have overlapping mating that can go on for hundreds of years ie old trees, long lived birds, multigenerational insects and comparable kinds of genomic interactions.

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Peace Seeds Lists PeaceSeedsLive.blogspot.com, PeaceSeedlingsSeeds.blogspot.com,
Andean Crops: Yacon, Oca, Mashua, Mauka; Eco-sanity, Recreality, Biodiversity,
Public Domain Plant Breeding,
organic kinship gardening,
seed growing and collecting, propagation of PNW native
plant species esp Lomatiums;
propagating the rare and disappearing, to adapt and encourage adaptation of food and other plants to the conditions of extreme weather; grexes with mixed genetic populations of hybridity.
Continuing to work with sunflowers, marigolds, tomatoes, andean roots, thanks for seeds of mechamik, the large rooted, hardy, perennial sweet potato Ipomoea pandurata....and during the past few years exploration of wild tomato species and their progeny with heirloom and modern cultivars has given rise to new hypertress tomato plant architecture,
From the work of Peace Seedlings with zinnias we are selecting Crown Tiger's Eye Zinnias, a remarkable floristic development.

Globe Artichoke

Species Tomato

Geranium Kiss Tomato

Green Beauty Pea

There is good reason for optimism after a very wet and sometimes cold winter. Spring comes giving rise to spreens, a hybrid word coined by Lindsay Bradshaw that comes from new green growths of spring. It is reassurance that the light is increasing, that night is waning and another cycle in the perennial phenomenon of temperate zone life is miraculously coming true before our eyes. Leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, food, fiber, sustainability, fertility, society, civilization, a planetary consciousness aware of the interrelatedness of all continues to emerge from the growth of myriad millions of species. Quadrillions of creatures, from subvisual multi-molecular specks called viruses to the macro creatures like us they inhabit, have developed patterns of persistence, endurance and adaptability coming from uncharted interactions, some cooperative, some competitive, all with consequences in the lives, fates and histories of organisms. It is with organisms in mind that brings organic soil into focus. During the recent years, molecular biologists have been exploring the microscopic biology of the oceans, soils, swamps, bogs, fumaroles, fissures and other niches where bacteria and their kin live. We now know that the green in the leaves of plants, the mitochondrial energy systems of our human animal cells, parts of the structure of the chromosomes and membranes of all eukaryotic (means ‘true nuclei’ cells (i.e. not bacterial) come from the two major groups of bacterial organisms that live here on and in this planet. These two major groups, the eubacteria and the archaea pooled their talents and most of what we humans generally call life is the result. Not a shallow consequence for the results of working together cooperatively. In spite of comets, earthquakes, continental plate shifts, changes in the sun and neighboring planets, life has been sustainable for several billion years on this remarkable, uncommon, small, rather inconspicuous planet. On the thin skin of this planet is a biofilm of life. It is not the only biofilm made of organisms, there are others further inside the planet, inside our large intestine and over our teeth and in the soil we organic gardeners and farmers use to grow food, fiber, flowers, and a future worthwhile to everyone. So spring comes and the biosomes (groups of cooperating organisms that give rise to fertility) move into vigor. The nitrogen in the air, the phosphate, calcium, iron and other minerals from the earth, the sunlight striking the green biopigments splitting water into hydrogenium (a hydride minus an electron) and oxygen, each and every part requiring a different enzyme system, a different set of genes located in different sets of microbial organisms. This is teamwork on the cellular, microscopic level. Biochemical free radicals, a diversity of kinds, are moved into, around and through cells to make energy. The discovery and nature of microbial talents continue to be unsuspected, remarkable and profound. Recent discoveries looking at bacteria (microbes or molecular critters = crits) in the open saline oceans finds new crits with molecular talents. Some are diazotrophs, they fix nitrogen from the air. Some are phototrophs, they split water with sunlight, some are phosphate scavengers, others live and use a variety of energy systems based on particular and local ecologies. In the soil, growing plants have the same issues about cooperators, growth enhancing and promoting organisms that inhabit the root zones of plants. Some of these are bacteria, others are fungi. Mycorhizal fungi are intimate with the roots of many plants. There are genetic signals between certain groups of bacteria, fungi and the roots of plants. These are built into the DNA, into the genes, with high specificity. Plants and fungi have genes in common for interacting with certain specific bacteria. Animals including insects and plants have genes in common for preventing the growth of fungi. Organisms that develop the prairies, the forests, the oceans are part of biosomes, the collectives of organisms and their interactions that are the core of how life has thrived on this planet. So as we engage once again the gardening season, the next cycle, consider the weeds as first and second favorite allies in making your garden more fertile, healthier and more productive this year. They go together with the bacteria and fungi. The weeds mixed with soil make food for the bacteria who grow most quickly and provide food for fungi which inhabit the roots making domains for biosomes. The floods have covered garlic and brassicas for weeks now. They seem to survive seasonal flooding quite well. Red Russian kale and Savoy kale are doing very well; the Romanesco broccoli and Openapa chinese cabbage are more ragged. Walking to the edge of the lake that will once again become the center of our vegetable gardening, I wonder at how the biosomes change when there is flooding and oxygen in the soil is drastically reduced. Nine years ago was the last flood and the underground rodents were chased to higher ground and we had great root crops for 3 years before they began to reinhabit the lowlands. So planting layouts are adapted to the seasonal ecology. Yacon, oca, garlic, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, beets, apios, burdock and turnips all go in the now flooded land. Flood brings other consequences. River water used to dilute pollutants from pulp and paper mills, computer chip industries, chemically managed agriculture wash over soil managed organically for decades, a microscopic biofilm coating with a flavoring of efflux from plastics, cars, petroleum products, field animals, and the residue of burned fields and roasted coffee beans. And then there are the weed seeds that get a ride into our garden to be discovered during the cycle where lettuces have to be free of wild lettuce, where free ranging rapeseed (aka canola seed) floats, unsuspected and possibly GMO, into our work of breeding for the public domain and the organic movement while preserving the heritage of temperate zone food crops adapted to our bioregion. Most of the soils I’ve worked with during the past decades of organic seed growing have been impoverished in one way or another. Hence I’ve routinely supplemented the soil with ‘amendments’. In the beginning, these were animal manures, some composted, some not. These gave way to powders of seaweeds, ground rocks and pellets of recycled fish. We made compost and used it for potting soil but rarely had enough for acres of field crops. Several times during the past few years, I noticed that a handful of fertilizer under the transplants attracts slugs and snails who eat the plants after delighting in the amendment. Then I transplanted tomatoes into tilled, unamended soil, and topdressed 1/5th of the plants. The fertilized amendment had no effect. So after 16 years working the same ground, tilling in the weeds religiously, feeding the biosomes, some if not most of the plants we grow don’t need amendments.I wonder how the organic movement got trapped into a supplement dependant analog of chemical agriculture. One of the principal ideas of organics, in addition to local, adaptive and sustainable, is microorganism-allied supplement-free agriculture. The weeds provide the food of fertility and maybe we need some seaweeds for trace minerals and the right magic dust of bacterial inoculants for biosomal crits. In 2005, Monsanto purchased Semenis Seeds, itself the merger of several major seed companies including Petoseeds (USA) and Sluis and Groot (Holland). Thus seed companies who routinely supply the organic movement, sometimes even with ‘organic’ seeds, get their goods from subsets of a company that supplies napalm, toxic agricultural poisons and transgenic canola, soybeans and cotton. An alternative to corporate agriculture and international food commodity marketing is at home organic gardening. An alternative to expensive organic food is to develop personal, family and community gardens with shared costs, talents and services. An alternative to being out of shape is to garden, using tools skillfully and motors rarely if at all. An alternative to being bored and in need of entertainment is to complete the cycles between ourselves, our foodplants and their seeds.Exploring the genome pool of the diversity of life gives some perspective on the extinction of species and the loss of habitats. Looking into the kinship relationship of foodplants to their wild relatives can lead to gardens in which the tree of life is the primary focus. Collecting species in a genus, for example Viola (the genus of violets whose center of diversity is the Andes in South America) or growing varieties in a species (tomatoes, mostly Solanum lycopersicum) and organizing gardens to explore their relationships are two of myriad possibilities for gardening the gene pool and conserving local and locally rare species and varieties. As ‘development’ eliminates both the impressive and the obscure, as ancient and giant oaks and maples become monoculturistic housing projects and camas hyacinths, native to the pacific northwest for their edible bulbs and their blue flowers also find their numbers down to a trace of their widespread abundance a few hundred years ago, we can reckon that conservation of diversity is up to each of us. Kinship gardening provides a way to optimize diversity while exploring its nature.During the past few gardening seasons we have been particularly pleased by the Centiflor, Amish and Palestinian Ohio tomatoes, the edamame soybeans Hakucho, Hidatsa and Oosodefuri, Nutribud Broccoli, the Andean sunroot Yacon, the Andean tubers Mashua v. pilifera and Oca of which we have now collected a dozen varieties.Best of organic gardening to everyone.